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Monday, September 17, 2012

It's Getting Later All the Time - Antonio Tabucchi

Thanks again to Caroline for organizing
Antonio Tabucchi week. Please visit herefor
a comprehensive list of all participating blogs.

It's Getting Later All the Time by Antonio Tabucchi is a very innovative and
different book. Not a traditional narrative at all, it is instead an epistolary novel consisting of a series of letters from men, written
to their estranged and sometimes deceased lovers. This work was challenging for
me. It is mostly written in a post – modernist style. Some, but not all, of the
letters are extremely difficult to follow. Some jump from subject to subject in
all sorts of cryptic directions somewhat randomly. Some make myriad and, at times,
obscure and arcane references to art, history, culture and science at a
breakneck speed. I was glad that I had a mobile device at hand so as to look up
many of the references online that would otherwise have flown over my head. Other
letters are relatively straightforward and easy to follow. All are poetic and
beautifully written. Sometimes they are funny. At other times they are
heartbreaking.

Throughout the novel multiple common themes recur,
sometimes in a seemingly haphazard fashion. This book takes mental work! In
several passages, Tabucchi describes memory and thought as being broken up into
shards. Likewise, the ideas and motifs in this book are presented in pieces. The
author begins to develop a bit of an idea and leaves it hanging as the prose
scurries off in a new and unexpected direction. Often the idea will return in another
letter, sometimes in a different “key”. There are recurring symbols. Goats,
circles and angles are examples of imagery that reappear multiple times.

At times I was befuddled. As I alluded to above, I
cannot imagine reading this book without the assistance of an Internet search
engine. This electronic aid was indeed very helpful. The author’s postscript
also provided very informative insights. It seems as if Tabucchi realized that
this book was a tough nut to crack, and decided to provide a little help! Finally,
healthy spurts of rereading passages after completing the book make me feel as
if I had turned the tide in the battle to de- encrypt what Tabucchi is trying to
say.

There are multiple themes here, some of which I believe
that I have gone a ways towards deciphering, and others that I am still fuzzy
about. One important set of ideas starts with an emphasis that there is not
much to our physical selves other then conglomerations of blood and organs. For instance, when one of the letter writers
imagines a scene involving a human sacrifice,

“the slab of
stone illuminated by the revived goddess and toward the entrails that had
appeared on the dolman. Without a doubt these were guts devoid of the human or
animal envelope that once housed them. A fragile, whitish tube of cartridge
that ended in a reddish bean, from which branched out other ducts laden with
blood and lymphatic vessels. But these entrails led nowhere because the body was
absent.”

This theme that demonstrates the lack of significance
of our physical bodies is further developed into the idea that there is a lack
of significance relating to actual action and experience. Instead, Tabucchi
implies that it is imagination and memories, which are often false, and, above
all, the words which make us real and are really important. Again and again,
memories are often shown to be inaccurate, yet crucial, in the development as
to who we are.

Imagination is similarly emphasized. The power and
artistry of words is analyzed and celebrated over and over again. At one point,
a letter writer describes in elaborate detail a trip that he and his girlfriend
never actually took:

“This is why
I remind you of the journey we didn’t make to Samarkand, because this was the
one that was real and our and full and lived.”

The above is just one of multiple intellectual
threads developed by Tabucchi.

If reading this book sounded like it was a little
difficult, it was! However, I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. This type of
reading experience is my cup of tea. I love to try to dig deep, to interpret,
and to work a bit on the book that I am occupied with. I take satisfaction in the fact that I was
able to crack some of Tabucchi’s secrets. I am tempted to read this work again,
right now, from cover to cover, as I suspect such an undertaking would reveal a
world of new understanding.

To read this book I recommend three things: first, a
strong desire and curiosity to delve into the author’s very creative mind; second,
patience, as some rereading may be necessary; third, a reliable Internet
connection! In addition to the intellectual challenge that Tabucchi presents,
he is also a wonderful writer who shows mastery of many styles. His themes and
philosophies, while difficult and dense, are the product of a great imagination
and contain both wisdom and insight. I recommend this one for enthusiastic and
determined readers!

21 comments:

Thanks so much for joining and your wonderful review. I never think of him as a difficult writer although I agree a lot wouldn't make much sense if you didn't either know what he is referring to or got a way to find out. I suppose in the future there will be highly annotated editions of his work. I like that his books, although intellectually challaneging always contain wonderful qite mundane descriptions. And they are all variations on the theme off the quest. All of his protagonists are looking for something or someone. The past, the present, reality and dreams are blurred. In think it's a good thing in his case, his books aren't much longer. Should you ever want to read something else. Indian Nocturne and Pereira Declares are the most accessible. I've read this collection when it came out and need to read it again.

Hi Miguel - I definitely agree that in reality, as in this book, memories are amazingly inaccurate. A somewhat trivial example — I will attend a meeting with six or seven people. The next day there are multiple conflicting versions as to what was said at the meeting.

I was eagerly awaiting your review on this one...Sounds like an interesting read, its strange than love sounds deeper when it is lost forever..Or is it that only people who have lost their love try to explain themselves..Its curious how ew characters have evolved, I should add this one to my list..My read list is piling high than the one that I have read..

Hi VB - Yes the problem with read lists re that they grow faster then one can read.

It is true that something longed for is often stronger then what one has.

On the other hand when it comes to these letters there is generally not the extreme passion that one often associates with young love. They are all written by older men. The passages are more wistful, sad and philosophical. Sometimes however, the love seems deep.

HI VB - trying to dig into the philosophy, presumably if there such of a book's author.

I have not read too many books on the Khmer Rouge. I have read a fair number of random articles over the years. "Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare" by Philip Short was really good biography of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. "The Killing Fields" was great movie and paints a horrifying picture of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

I still have this out of the library a year after reading it (bad me!), but I keep thinking I'll re-read it. Miguel's comment that this one seems so different from Pereira Maintains might be said of any of Tabucchi's works, as they all seem so different from one another. I found It's Getting Later All the Time to be particularly devilish, in that it has a punch line that adds a particular gloss of meaning to all the epistles, some of which - in addition to containing "obscure and arcane references, are also deeply moving.

As Tom points out, the Samarkand reference is pure Pessoa. One can certainly enjoy Tabucchi without having read Pessoa, but Pessoa is everywhere in Tabucchi.

I've never heard of this author before. In the past two years, I've gotten heavily into the Young Adult genre, and have woefully neglected literary fiction, which I LOVE. I'll have to do something about that...

This book sounds like too much of a frustrating read. Although you've pointed out that it's well worth it anyway, I wonder if I would have the patience to delve into all the intricacies in it. However, I think you might be right, and that one will ultimately be rewarded in the end. So, I'll put it in my TBR. Let's see how it goes...

As usual, you've written an excellent analysis of this novel. I really enjoyed your very honest opinions and observations regarding this book. KUDOS TO YOU!!! : )

Fascinating! I just read Pereira Maintains, and with the exception of a little quirk in the narrative voice it was quite a conventional novel in its form and structure. This one sounds off the charts! Will be interesting to take a look at it one day - but I'm not rushing...